Entries tagged with: TheFutureheads

It's that time of year already I guess. NME quizzed a whole bunch of artists about their favorite album of the year. Bat For Lashes chose Alt-J who recently won the Mercury Prize and who chose Polica as their favorite. That and more, if you can understand what they're saying, in the video, below....

It's not the most action-packed of weekends in TWII land. Stars is sold out, as is Kings of Convenience and Delorean, no twee indiepop from Denmark, or San Francisco garage rockers. So I'm gonna start with mentioning that terrific Leeds, UK trio Sky Larkin (who played one of our CMJ day parties last year) have finished their second album, Kaleide, and it'll be out in August. Like their first album, Kaleide was recorded in Seattle with John Goodmason. But the results this time seem a little more muscular and confident.

Hear for yourself: the band are offering up a free, downloadable EP featuring the album's swell title track (pronounced "collide"). You do have to give up your email address to get it but they're nice folks and I'm sure they won't do anything nefarious with it. Either visit their website or use the download widget at the bottom of this post. Hopefully we'll get the band over here again soon.

Nana Grizol

OK, so what's going on this weekend? Athens, GA's multitudinous Nana Grizol are in town tonight (6/4), playing Silent Barn on their way back from the Primavera Sound festival and we should be glad to have them. Their wide-eyed folk pop reminds me just a little of much-missed '90s band Small Factory, There's a similar approach to the songwriting, even if the arrangements add about 15 more people (depending on the night) to the mix. You can download two tracks from their latest album, Ruth, at the top of this post. They are super-charming live.

Adding to the fun (and sheer number of musicians onstage at any one time) at Silent Barn are Providence, RI's What Cheer? Brigade which is a 19 piece brass ensemble whose sound is "an aggressive mix of Bollywood, The Balkans, New Orleans, Samba and Hip-Hop, played with the intensity of metal." There's also locals The Eskalators, and Boston singer/songwriter Greg Mullen. Sounds like a pretty fun, probably sweaty, night.

The Futureheads play Maxwell's tomorrow (6/5) and Bowery Ballroom on Tuesday (6/8). Like a lot of people, I was a huge fan of their first album, and felt the two following albums were a little too straightforward (and overproduced) for a band who got popular on quirky charm. Some of that off-kilter-ness is back on the band's new album, The Chaos, which I think is easily their best since that first one. They've kind of become a modern, Northern England version of The Knack. Which is a good thing as far as I'm concerned. Check out "Struck Dumb" at the top of this post.

The band played Music Hall of Williamsburg earlier this week, it was probably the eight or ninth time I've seen them live, and I have to say even when I'm not crazy about whatever record they're touring at the time, they are always worth seeing live. Singer/guitarist Barry Hyde is as manic as ever, guitarist/vocalist Ross Millard provides the punchlines, and the band are tight as hell, and nail those four-part harmonies. And "Decent Days and Nights" and their amazing cover of "Hounds of Love" still sound brilliant.

Athlete

While we're reminiscing about 2004... Athleteplay the Bell House tomorrow (6/5). They are not remotely cool anymore, but I have great affection for their debut album, Vehicles & Animals, an exceedingly pleasant bunch of mid-tempo, head-bobbing Brit indie tunes, all of which seemed to have been based on Pavement's "Carrot Rope." It's still a good album to clean the house to.

I saw them at a half-full Mercury Lounge back in March 2004 (they played with, um, Razorlight if memory serves) and remember them being charmingly nerdy. I'm still a bit baffled how/why a year later they turned into Snow Patrol. They're pretty huge in the UK but America has never caught on, but I'm sure that the Bell House will be full of ex-pats and Anglophiles. I'm half tempted to go, if for nothing else than to hear "El Salvador" or "You Got the Style."

After Brooklyn they continue on a month-long North American tour in support of their new album Black Swan, which isn't half bad. All tour dates are at the bottom of this post.

Po Po

And one last show of interest. Tonight (6/4) at Glasslands is a pretty good bill, headlined by low-fi Philly duo PO PO. Also playing: Light Asylum who I've written about a bit before and you may have seen open for LCD Soundsystem last month at Music Hall of Williamsburg; enigmatic local band Translations whose songs on MySpace sound pretty good; and underheard Brooklynites (and Soft Pack cohorts) The Sundelles.

And one last little note of shameless plugging. If you're looking for something new to listen to, over on Sound Bites I post a weekly downloadable Summer Fridays mix during the warm months. This is the third year I've done it and this week's has new tunes from Foals, Beach Fossils, Django Django, Young Friends, Radio Dept, plus some oldies (B-52's, Lulu, Air Miami + more) as well.

That's it for this week. Flyers, videos, that Sky Larkin download widget, and tour dates are below.

Until the Futureheads blasted into the Top 10, five years back, with a spiky post-punk cover of Kate Bush's "Hounds of Love," Sunderland had been a musical backwater, with only Kenickie, the Lauren Laverne fronted punk-pop outfit, making a national impression. "Not knowing the rules enabled us to take risks," explains the guitarist, Ross Millard, "to act on our own instinct."

Celebrating a decade together in 2010, and with album number four ready for release, the Futureheads still live in the city. "There's a clear lack of ego in Sunderland," Millard says. "You have that underdog spirit if you come from this place." That underdog spirit, allied to an absence of other cultural distractions, helps to explains why the city is now punching above its weight musically. Its young have simply been forced to make their own entertainment. [UK Times]

The Futureheads will bring their fourth album, The Chaos, out June 1st on Dovecote Records, for a stateside tour this June, after a long run of UK dates. A track from the record is downloadable above.

As part of the tour, the band will be playing three NYC-area shows. The first, at Music Hall of Williamsburg, happens on Tuesday, June 1st. The third is a week later on June 8th at Bowery Ballroom.Tickets go on AmEx presale Wednesday at noon, and general sale Friday at noon.

Between those, the band's show include a gig at Maxwell's in Hoboken on June 5th.Maxwell's ticketsare on sale now.

"I havent written on here for a while but I've taken the time to write this as I think music piracy is having a dangerous effect on British music, but some really rich and successful artists like Nick Mason from Pink Floyd and Ed O'Brien from Radiohead don't seem to think so. Last week in an article in the Times these guys from huge bands said file sharing music is fine. It probably is fine for them. They do sell-out arena tours and have the biggest Ferrari collections in the world. For new talent though, file sharing is a disaster as it's making it harder and harder for new acts to emerge." [Lily Allen on MySpace, September 14, 2009]

I didn't make it to the Bowery Ballroom show two nights ago, so last night's more intimate show at Pianos was the first time I had seen The Futureheads live in a while. I forgot how tight (and funny) they are. They played a mix of old and new songs that had a good amount of the crowd jumping up and down for the majority of their set.

Before we knew it, they were ripping through "Beginning of the Twist," arguably the best song off their latest release, This Is Not The World. The drummer, looking every bit of American Idol's David Cook, either screwed up the set intro or was, as some suggested, really drunk. His inability or unwillingness to come in at the right times became a running joke for the night. Before the final few songs of the set, he held his drum stick in the air like half-baked conductor holding an orchestra hostage. If there was more on the line, this would have been annoying. But they knew what we knew: everyone came here to have fun. If you were one of the lucky people in the door, you sure as hell weren't going to get down on the drummer for being drunk. The beer was free and the band was big. What else do you need? [32ft/second]

Thanks again to everyone for another fun Rock n ROFL show (June 18, 2008). The Futureheads said they would be back in September. More pictures below.....

When Nik Freitas opened for Rilo KileyI pointed out that he is on Team Love and stuff. Tonight he's opening for Johnathan Rice and Maria Taylor. Yesterday I noticed he's also in Conor Oberst's new band.